eReceptionist
The world is your office An increasingly agile and flexible approach to work practices and places is enabling small business to attract talent, expand easily and keep their overheads low NTREPRENEURS, by their very nature, are usually in the vanguard of change. And this applies as much to shifting working practices as it does anything else. A mix of new technologies, rising infrastructure costs and the need for adaptability and scalability are undoubtedly fuelling a move away from traditional officebased working towards dispersed virtual teams, remote working and outsourced essential services. According to the World Economic Forum, the trend towards flexible working has become “one of the biggest drivers of transformation of business models”. Its 2016 Future of Jobs report further noted that “telecommuting, co-working spaces, virtual teams, freelancing and online talent platforms are all on the rise, transcending the physical boundaries
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of the office or factory floor and redefining the boundary between one’s job and private life”. For many entrepreneurs, startups and freelancers, the world really can be their office as technology enables them to work remotely from geographically diverse locations. Whether they are working in their homes, a nearby coffee shop, a co-working hub or on a beach in Thailand, advances in mobile, cloudbased and other digital technologies mean they can always stay connected no matter where they are. At its most extreme, this kind of remote working means a business may not need a fixed physical location at all – or, even if it does, it may just require a small HQ – and a highly distributed workforce. Several of the best-known tech startups are famous for their remote workforces, including
Basecamp, Buffer and Automattic – the latter, which is the company behind WordPress.com, claims to have 644 “Automatticians” spread across 59 countries and speaking 79 different languages. One of the key attractions of this type of working for small and growing businesses is that they can avoid investing in costly office infrastructure. This lowers their overheads, promotes agility and scalability and reduces the long-term financial commitments they need to make. It makes sense to focus energy and resources on developing their new product or service, rather than covering the rent or paying out on office administration. When Buffer closed its US head office a few years ago, it noted that the space was “a not-insignificant element of our overall expenditures each month – more than we paid for health insurance or advertising and marketing”. But this isn’t the only factor at play. Talent is another driver of shifting working practices: millennials are increasingly looking for more flexibility and freedom in the way they work, as well as a better work-life balance. To create the right team, entrepreneurs need to offer something different to the conventional commute and nine-tofive working. Freed from the confines of the traditional office, businesses can assemble virtual teams that draw on the best talent, regardless of location. Eschewing bricks and mortar in favour of fluid, virtual workspaces can also be greener and more sustainable, reducing a business’s energy use and associated carbon footprint. SMEs and startups are perhaps uniquely placed to reap the most benefit from these workplace trends as they are already leaner, more agile and more adaptable. Less likely to encumbered by legacy infrastructure or staff, they can start to define their own organisational cultures, based on teams for whom working remotely is often second nature.
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